View statistics for public folders and public folder items

This topic explains how to retrieve statistics about a public folder, such as the display name, creation time, last user modified time, last user access, and item size. You can use this information to make decisions about deleting or retaining public folders.

Note:

In the Exchange admin center (EAC), you can view some of the quota and usage information for public folders by navigating to Public Folders > Edit > Mailbox usage. However, this information is incomplete, and we recommend that you use the Shell to view public folder statistics.

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folders" entry in the Sharing and collaboration permissions topic.

The value for the Identity parameter must include the path to the public folder. For example, if the public folder Marketing existed under the parent folder Business, you would provide the following value: \Business\Marketing

You can view the following information about items within a public folder:

Type of item

Subject

Last user modification time

Last user access time

Creation time

Attachments

Message size

You can use this information to make decisions about what actions to take for your public folders, such as which public folders to delete. For example, you may want to delete a public folder if the items haven't been accessed for over two years, or you may want to convert a public folder that's being used as a document repository to another client access application.

This example returns default statistics for all items in the public folder Pamphlets under the path \Marketing\2013. Default information includes item identity, creation time, and subject.

This example returns additional information about the items within the public folder Pamphlets, such as subject, last modification time, creation time, attachments, message size, and the type of item. It also includes a piped command to format the list.